Obama, Congress must act now before guns claim more lives

Friday, December 28, 2012

It’s happened again, this time in Webster, N.Y., a little resort town on the shore of Lake Ontario.

Sixty two-year-old William Spengler, who had served 17 years in prison for beating his grandmother to death with a hammer in 1980, apparently killed a sister he hated and then set the house they shared on fire.

And when firefighters responded to the scene on Christmas Eve just before dawn, he was ready.

Armed with a .223-caliber semiautomatic Bushmaster rifle with flash suppression — the same make and caliber weapon used in this month’s elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn., that killed 26 innocent victims — Spengler started firing. Volunteer firefighter and police Lt. Michael Chiapperini, 43, died when bullets shattered the windshield of the fire truck he drove to the scene. Firefighter Tomasz Kaczowka, 19, who worked as a 911 dispatcher, was also killed. Two other firefighters were wounded. They are expected to survive.

Spengler committed suicide on a nearby beach as the blaze spread to six other houses. Police said he left behind a rambling typed missive.

Pickering read only part of it: “I still have to get ready to see how much of the neighborhood I can burn down, and do what I like doing best, killing people.”

It’s not known what set Spengler off. Neighbors said his mother died in October. Since his release from prison, he had lived a quiet life, with no known brushes with the law.

“I’m not sure we’ll ever know what was going through his mind,” Pickering said.

As a convicted felon, Spengler was not allowed to have weapons. He got them anyway. How and when is unknown at this point. But what is known is the deadly result.

Was the killer mentally ill? Does it matter? He was still able to get hold of a military-style assault rifle and wreak horror on the town where he lived.

Once again, heroic firefighters rushing to save people from danger fell victim to it.

Just 10 days after the unthinkable happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School, once again the nation is transfixed by horror.

Once again, the slaughter was committed with a Bushmaster, a weapon no civilian needs for hunting or personal protection. It’s great for mass murder, but not much else. Still, buyers flocked to gun shows and shops to get one in the wake of Connecticut.

President Obama has promised action on America’s gun problem, and is expected to send detailed proposals to Congress next month.

That can’t happen soon enough.It’s hard not to wonder, though, how many other people will die cruelly and needlessly from gunshot wounds before then.